about

For fans of Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone series and Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha Trilogy comes the first book in the Dark Caravan Cycle, a modern fantasy-adventure trilogy about a gorgeous, fierce eighteen-year-old jinni who is pitted against two magnetic adversaries, both of whom want her—and need her—to make their wishes come true.

Nalia is a jinni of tremendous ancient power, the only survivor of a coup that killed nearly everyone she loved. Now in hiding on the dark caravan—the lucrative jinni slave trade between Arjinna and Earth, where jinn are forced to grant wishes and obey their human masters’ every command—she’d give almost anything to be free of the golden shackles that bind her to Malek, her handsome, cruel master, and his lavish Hollywood lifestyle. Enter Raif, the enigmatic leader of Arjinna’s revolution and Nalia’s sworn enemy. He promises to release Nalia from her master so she can return to her ravaged homeland and free her imprisoned brother. There’s just one catch: for Raif’s unbinding magic to work, Nalia must gain possession of her bottle . . . and convince the dangerously persuasive Malek that she truly loves him.

About The Author

When Heather Demetrios isn't traipsing around the world or spending time in imaginary places, she lives with her husband in New York City. Originally from Los Angeles, she now calls the East Coast home. Heather received her MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is a recipient of the PEN New ...

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Reviews

Rated 2 out of
5 by
Julie from
Exquisite Captive (Dark Caravan Cycle #1) by Heather DemetriosYou know, I won’t say if I recommend it or not. This obviously is a hit or miss and, depending on your pet peeves, preferences, fantasies and values, you may…or may not enjoy this. I do hope that, for you, it’ll go better than it did for me

Date published: 2017-06-17

Rated 4 out of
5 by
Meredith from
Cool and LushThere's always the danger, with books like this, of taking the sensuality of a story based off of Arabian folklore and the horror that comes from human trafficking and going to town with the sexiness or shock factor. And while I'm not saying it was a completely tame, G-rated affair, I really appreciated the tact and honesty and compelling emotions that went into what could have been a cheap, sleazy sort of thing.
Nalia was an incredibly compelling character. I was a bit dubious at the beginning - extremely beautiful and extremely powerful, I was worried she was going to be some sort of sexy caricature - but her humanity and her determination endeared me to her, and I found myself really appreciating her. She was strong and determined and self-sacrificing. She faced up to her mistakes and wasn't so set in her ways that she couldn't learn and grow. I ended up cheering for her every step of the way. Plus, she had good, honest reasons for being extremely beautiful and powerful, so we can forgive her for that.
The atmosphere of this book was amazing. It somehow managed to make California seem as lush and exotic and mysterious as the setting of Arabian Nights, while introducing vibrant new worlds and glimpses into exotic locales. It wove a web around me that I didn't want to leave. The creepiness factor of the ghoul kept it from being too tame and was just scary enough to keep me shivering.
And then there was the romance. While romance does take a big part of this, it wasn't at all overwhelming. There's a lot of DNF reviews that complain about Malek, one half of the "love triangle," and for good reason; he's a slimy, abusive, morally reprehensible man. Just rest assured, I personally don't think he's part of the love triangle at all. He's manipulative, yes, and pitiable, which combines for some honest moments where you really feel sympathy for the guy and in which Nalia makes some questionable decisions - but ultimately with good, ulterior motives - that leads to the "love triangle" conclusion, but Nalia is not about to stand for that sort of abuse for long, nor is she really deluding herself about their relationship or Malek's true nature. Let's just say, those reviewers should have read to the end before they complained about him and Nalia.
And Raif was just swoon-worthy. Enough said.
Bad things - the pace was a bit slow. It was heavy on the exhibition, which made for some cool world-building but dragged at the plot. I'm not sure much happened of any significance besides the whole freedom issue, which is why I am excited for the next where, supposedly, adventuring takes center stage. After this long book solely devoted to the characters and their development and a rich, lush world building, I am ready for some action.
Not to say there was no action here. There was. I just want more.
Also, I am not knowledgable enough to know whether or not the subtle hints to arabian culture were too subtle or just plain out wrong, so I'll leave that to reader's discretion.
Overall, I was definitely involved in some sort of spell here, and I'm very interested to see where Nalia takes this.

Date published: 2016-12-21

Rated 4 out of
5 by
BRITTANY from
Review from This is the Story of My(Reading) LifeThis was such a dark and sexy read. I really haven't read that many jinni books. But I think Exquisite Captive will be a hard one to beat. The mythology and fantasy world was on point. Although it took me a while to get names and the language straight that didn't take away from my enjoyment of the story or world building. The concept of jinni's being sold into slavery on earth was really quite relevant and sad. Nalia's imprisonment to Malek was a real emotional journey. I knew I should never ever feel an ounce for Malek or want to see him happy with Nalia in the future, but I may have failed a bit there. It was hard, okay. Nalia is a real feisty girl. Really, really loved her POV. The civil war and revolution in the jinni world was quite fascinating. It brought Raif to find Nalia, and their banter/fighting was on point. I had a small grievance with the quick romance, but nothing to detour me or my confusion on which ship I want to follow. Exquisite Captive left off on the perfect mark. Not a cliffy, but definitely makes you want the sequel. So obviously I cannot wait.

Date published: 2015-12-08

Rated 2 out of
5 by
Giselle_from_Book_Nerd_Ca from
There's no plot..I thought this was going to have a ton of magical elements and crazy wishes but it ended up being a romance. And not a very good one either because there were two men vying for her attention. One ended up being her master because let's face it she's a jinni and she has to obey him no matter what. He ended up being the creepiest master ever. Saying he loves her yet he enclaves her and doesn't care when she disappears for hours away from the house. Um okay, talk about mixed signals? Then the other love interest at first sounded like he had promise. Then that went out the hill because it was way too fast. They didn't fall in love gradually and it was just so complicated. I pretty much didn't care for the characters especially for Nalia. She is super judgmental and prejudiced against the "lower" castes of her world and it irritated me to no end when she pulled her superiority complex on the others.
The biggest problem for me was the pacing, it was too long and too dragged out.. Barely anything happened until 70% in and that's too long of a time to stay with a book. The plot needs to grip you from the start and this one sadly did not. Also way too much romance that I couldn't feel.
It's hard to like a book when you dislike the characters or they don't end up dong much except all the wrong things. I'm just sad this wasn't executed to my liking because it had a lot of promise.

Date published: 2015-11-27

Rated 4 out of
5 by
islandgeekgirl from
Amazing new seriesNalia is the only survivor after the massacre of her clan. She?s a powerful jinni, one of the most powerful, but that doesn?t save her from the dark caravan, who bring jinnis from Arjinna to earth and sell them. Nalia finds herself bought and owned by a human master, Malek, and forced to do his bidding. She would give anything to be free of her bindings to him but has little hope. Until she meets Raif, the leader of Arjinna?s revolution. He promises Nalia he can free her but his help comes with a high cost. With enemies closing in, and someone out to kill her, Nalia might have little choice but to agree.
I fell in love with this book almost immediately. The characters, the setting, the world-building, all of it worked for me and I found myself not wanting to finish because it was going to be a long wait for the next book.
Nalia was a character I really enjoyed. She was strong and massively stubborn. She also had a great sense of humour and could be very feisty, especially in regards to the men who always seemed to want someone from her. She harboured a lot of guilt for being the only survivor of her people and put so much pressure on herself to save her little brother. She seemed very lonely and the few times we saw her getting to positively interact with people who wanted nothing from her, I wanted to cry for her. They were so rare.
The two main men in her life, Malek and Raif, were such complete opposites. Malek could be cruel, though in his twisted way cared for Nalia. I liked the way his back story came into play but with how cruel he was, I could never root for him to end up with Nalia. The relationship between Raif and Nalia started off with a lot of tension and distrust, their castes hate each other, but they need each other. They sparked something in each other and the angry tension turned into something a lot steamier.
The descriptions of everything were amazing. The clothes, the club, Arjinna, the paintings Nalia?s friend Leilan did of Arjinna. It sounded like such a beautiful place that I wanted to visit. The world-building was in-depth and learning about Arjinna felt natural in the plot instead of forced in. The whole plot just flowed really well. Even when there was less action happening, there were other developments that kept my attention, we would get character development or some back story or we?d see through the eyes of the guy sent to murder Nalia.
I think the main thing I loved about the book was the nothing, not the characters or their relationships or the plot or the world, were simple. There were so many sides to everything and it gave the feeling that were will be even more to come.
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Date published: 2014-10-27

Extra Content

Editorial Reviews

“Demetrios crafts a refreshingly diverse story with nods to Arabian culture in this lengthy blend of traditional jinni lore and urban fantasy elements.”